Presidents Report from the 2016 SEEBA Annual General Meeting

Posted January 21, 2017

Nov 17, 2016

2016 President’s Report

I would first like to welcome you all to the SEEBA 2016 annual general meeting. The purpose of SEEBA is to provide Edmonton and area baseball players the opportunity to compete at the highest level. This cannot occur without the assistance of our dedicated volunteer base and the countless hours that they devote to make this program the success that it is. The purpose of tonight’s meeting is to review the SEEBA program for 2016. The 2016 season began with our annual winter workout camp running from mid-January to the end of April. We continue to get very good attendance, 80+ attendees, ranging in ages from pee wee to midget. Through these winter camps, we are able to develop and evaluate players for approx. 3 months which allows our coaches insight for team selection by mid- April. SEEBA also offers tryout dates for those who choose not to attend camp.

The 2016 season for the S.E.E.B.A. Edmonton Cardinals brought forth both accomplishments and challenges. SEEBA fielded three teams this year comprising of two Midget teams with rosters of 18 and 20 for Midget 1 and Midget 2 respectively and a Bantam team with a roster of 14 players. For a total enrolment of 52 players, casino revenues along with corporate sponsorship allowed for SEEBA to heavily subsidize the teams. Midget players were subsidized in excess of $1400 a player while Bantams were subsidized over $800 a player. SEEBA received $77,000 in Casino revenue this year which will be divided evenly between 2017 and 2018 in an effort to provide a first rate program for AAA baseball at the Midget and bantam level.

-Midget 1 finished the season third overall with a record of 27-6 in league play, and an overall record of 54-9. The Midget 1 team won the 2016 Spokane Wood Bat Classic becoming only the second Canadian team to win the tournament. The team went on to win Provincials defeating Okotoks Red in the final game and went on to represent Alberta in Nationals.

-Midget 2 finished the season with a record of 6-29 in league play. The Midget 2’s placed 13th ahead of the Fort McMurray Oil Barons. The season was marred by some disruptive behaviour that impacted the team as a whole, and unfortunately resulted in suspensions. The first year head coach was unable to devote his sole attention to the team and it impacted the overall performance of the club. Changes have been made and policies have been put in place to avoid a reoccurrence of these types of issues.

-Bantam finished the season with a league record of 6-24 finishing 10th ahead of the Calgary Cubs. While the wins were few, development amongst the players was considerable and resulted in a rewarding year. The season also allowed us to identify potential coaches going forward who will be able to contribute to the overall success of the kids. There are still considerable challenges based upon boundary issues that serve to dilute the Edmonton product resulting in teams from the southern portion of the Province to dominate the top half of the standings. The costs of this program are heavily subsidized by Casino revenues which the club receives every second year. The last casino generated approximately $77,000 so it is a very important function for our club allowing us to keep the fees at a consistent level while still providing the same experience for our players. We also received the 2016 Community Investment Operating Grant from the City of Edmonton of just over $14,000 and our 2017 application has been completed and submitted. SEEBA’s mandate is to continue to attract players and coaches to help us represent Edmonton at the AAA baseball level in the Province of Alberta. We continue to have many graduates go on to play college baseball in both Canada and the US each year, we also encourage and support our graduates to come back and help coach in the program to continue the tradition of SEEBA baseball.

SEEBA looks forward to the 2017 season with the goal of continuing to provide baseball at the AAA level to Edmonton and area players, the subsidies from casino revenue will continue to allow us to offer the ability to travel to tournaments by bus with players accommodations paid for. This makes the experience much more affordable and allows SEEBA to participate in tournaments out of country at no additional costs to the parents. There are some enormous challenges ahead as other clubs look to enter AAA Midget teams in the coming years, boundary issues will again be in the forefront. With the support and guidance of a strong parent group and board of directors it is believed that S.E.E.B.A. will continue on. We want to work together with all other Edmonton baseball programs to ensure a competitive program exists and is available to all players in our area. We are aware of other Edmonton clubs wanting to field AAA teams in the Edmonton area and want to make sure we as a zone are not spreading ourselves and players too thin and watering down the calibre of the teams in the league. We are in talks with several coaches and look to firm up the positions over the next couple of months so that they will be in place when our winter camp starts in mid Jan. In summary, we look forward to fielding 3 performance level teams for the upcoming season, 1 Bantam, and 2 Midget. Finally I would like to thank all of our coaches, players and parents for a great 2016 season. Respectfully,

Larry Langley

President

South Edmonton Elite Baseball Association

Larry.Langley@edmontonpolice.ca

780-426-8356

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"The Leader for Performance Baseball in Edmonton"

The home page for the Edmonton Cardinals Baseball Club has moved to www.edmontoncardinals.com

All information about the Edmonton Cardinals teams and programs will now be found at www.edmontoncardinals.com